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Topic: Format war


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  Format war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Perhaps the most famous example was the videotape format war of the late 1970s / early 1980s, between the rival VHS and Betamax Videotape formats.
Both formats were nearly eliminated with the rise of the compact disc, though 12" vinyl records are still used by niche audiences such as disk jockeys and audiophiles.
As listed above, there are format wars that neither side wins, due to the technology becoming obsolete, and other format wars that neither side wins because users can easily obtain hardware and/or software capable of handling either format, or that all sides tried to achieve vendor lock-in before their dominance were assured.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Format_war   (811 words)

  
 Videotape format war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The videotape format war was a period of an intense format war of rival incompatible models of video cassette recorders in the 1970s and early 1980s.
By 1980, out of an estimated 100,000 homes with VCRs, 70% were rented, and the presence of two competing formats meant that rental was an even more attractive choice, since one didn't have to worry about spending a fortune (about £2000 in today's prices) on a system which was going to become obsolete.
Players were found to be less reliable than their VHS and Beta counterparts, and the format never gained substantial market share.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Videotape_format_war   (868 words)

  
 New Format War
The war between the two formats is on and a lot of mouthing off is going on, one side trying to best the other.
The HD-DVD format, which by its very nature strapped for storage before it even gets out of the gate, or Blu-Ray, a format that is expandable beyond anything we can currently anticipate and will grow with the demands of the delivery platforms.
It is the better format, plain and simple, and the format that better serves the purposes of the home entertainment industry.
www.dvdreview.com /html/new_format_war.html   (1287 words)

  
 The Betamax vs VHS Format War
For consumers, the most immediately obvious difference between the two formats was the recording length.
The issue of recording time is often cited as the most defining factor in the war.
The war was over by the late 1980s, although supporters of Betamax have helped keep the format going in a small niche market.
www.mediacollege.com /video/format/compare/betamax-vhs.html   (432 words)

  
 USATODAY.com - Sony says open to avoiding DVD format war   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
BORDEAUX, France — Sony Corp said on Wednesday it was open to discussions to create a single standard for the next generation of DVD discs, a move which could head off the looming threat of a major format war amongst the world's biggest technology companies.
The first players and recorders for the new formats are expected to be on the market by the end of this year, and as the introduction dates draw closer industry specialists fear a bloody battle similar to the video tape war between the VHS and Betamax formats in the early 1980s.
At the core of both formats are blue lasers, which have a shorter wavelength than the red lasers used in current DVD equipment, allowing discs to store data at the higher densities needed for high-definition movies and televisions.
www.usatoday.com /tech/news/2005-04-13-dvd-format-war_x.htm   (522 words)

  
 All eyes on new DVDs' format war | CNET News.com
Echoes of the quixotic war between Sony's Betamax and the VHS format that ultimately replaced it remain high in the minds of everyone involved even loosely with Hollywood, a distraction that nobody wants to repeat.
But as long as the two formats, called HD DVD and Blu-Ray, remain at odds, few believe that consumers will rush to open their wallets.
Home video has already provided the classic example of a format war, when the young VCR market saw Sony's Betamax tape format, the favorite of recording cognoscenti, square off against JVC's VHS.
news.com.com /All+eyes+on+new+DVDs+format+war/2100-1026_3-5783387.html   (1060 words)

  
 Videoguys.com- The DVD Cookbook On Line 3.0- DVD Formats Explained
Even though the format war is over (for now) it is still important to understand the various DVD formats.
The original 1.0 format, which held 3 billion bytes (2.8 gigabytes) per side and was not compatible with any existing players and drives, was abandoned in late 1999.
In spite of claims that one format is more compatible with players and drives, both formats are similarly compatible (see 4.3.1).
www.videoguys.com /DVDformat.html   (5031 words)

  
 CIOL : News : DVD format war brews even as videos go off-disk   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
"The irony of this format war is that it comes at the tail end of the century-long era of physical media," said Ted Schadler, analyst with Forrester Research.
An all-out disc format war is brewing after efforts to settle on a unified standard have failed.
One format will ultimately triumph, industry members said, as in the high-stakes home video battle between VHS and Betamax in the 1980s.
www.ciol.com /content/news/2005/105102202.asp   (877 words)

  
 Blu-ray to Win Format War?
The war between Betamax and VHS trained a generation of consumers to be wary of competing formats.
As the Sony-led and Toshiba-led camps fight for their respective formats, consumers remain quite satisfied with the current state of DVD, as the jump in picture quality may not be enough to entice mainstream users.
"The irony of this format war is that it comes at the tail end of the century-long era of physical media," Schadler noted.
www.businessweek.com /innovate/content/oct2005/id20051021_469296.htm   (896 words)

  
 Feds watching DVD format war   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
In a move that sharpens the focus on a video format war similar to the Betamax-VHS battle of the 1970s, the Department of Justice has reportedly begun a preliminary investigation into the creation of an informal consortium of consumer electronics manufacturers working on a new high-definition DVD format.
Sony lost the video format tussle in the 1980s but not until it took the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it won the legal battle over copyright concerns only to lose the consumer war to content controllers who backed the cheaper VHS format at the time.
Since the launch of the DVD format in 1997, revenue from home video sales has increased more than 300%, from about $4.6 billion in mostly VHS sales (which saw less than $100 million in DVD sales that year) to a whopping $14.3 billion (of which more than 85% represents DVD sales) in 2003.
hollywoodreporter.com /thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2077028   (601 words)

  
 Peace breaks out in DVD format war
HP was a backer of the +R format, Matsushita supported the RAM format, others supported the –R/RW format.
But, said the Journal, this year HP and Matsushita Panasonic will support each other’s format on drives and recorders so that you needn’t count the Rs, and tot up the minus and plus signs.
In the realm of DVD storage, the future war between HD and Blu-Ray, with Samsung occupying a cosy position in the middle, will give you plenty of cause to get bewitched, bothered and bewildered.
www.theinquirer.net /?article=20524   (195 words)

  
 [No title]   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
For the benefit those of you just entering college, the early 1980s saw a war between rival consumer electronics companies over the standard format for home video recorders.
There's a new format war in the offing, this time over the future of high definition video.
All parties involved agree that a format war is undesirable, yet no one seems ready to budge from their respective positions.
arstechnica.com /news.ars/post/20050419-4824.html   (361 words)

  
 Blu-ray is the best next-generation DVD. By Paul Boutin
Century Fox and Sony Pictures, have already pledged to adopt the Blu-ray format, which is expected to debut around the same time (and will also require a new player).
Tech writers are bracing for a VHS vs. Betamax-style format war, with consumers forced to choose sides or buy two separate, incompatible players.
The best format, then, is simply the one with the most possible storage space.
www.slate.com /id/2110495   (838 words)

  
 Technology News: Hardware : Next Gen DVD Standard Fuels Format War
An industry group has approved a standard for the next generation of DVD players, but the move could be just the first skirmish in a future format war.
That rejection could light the fuse to a format war similar to the one that created the existing multiple-format DVD market with R/RW, +R/+RW and RAM all competing for adherents.
Whatever standard is backed by Hollywood is sure to be the winner in a format shootout, and, according to analysts, the film industry will be backing only one standard and avoiding the consumer horror show that resulted during the VHS-Beta era.
www.technewsworld.com /perl/story/32272.html   (870 words)

  
 DVD Format Wars Page 1 - Talkbacks - Digital Trends
The reason is yet another self-destructive format war from a consumer electronics industry that seems incapable of learning the lessons of its own history.
But multiply it by millions (or hundreds of millions) of products rolling off assembly lines around the world and you’ll have a general idea of why every manufacturing player in the CE industry wants to be a format-licensing player as well.
The most notorious format war of recent times was Beta vs. VHS.
news.digitaltrends.com /talkback43.html   (488 words)

  
 DVD Cold War - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com
One leader is Toshiba, which is pushing its HD DVD format as a low-cost alternative that "stretches" current DVD technology to accommodate the data loads required by high-definition video.
The movie industry is hoping that high-def video formats can stem the steady erosion of DVD sales, which have long since outpaced sales of movie-theater tickets and thus represent one of the industry's primary sources of income.
The format battle is important, he says, "but 15 years from now DVD will no longer exist.
www.msnbc.msn.com /id/10965124/site/newsweek   (1066 words)

  
 DVD Format War Frustrating Retailers
The current struggle for supremacy in the DVD technology sector is frustrating consumers and retailers.
The high-stakes war between HD DVD and Blu-ray is certain to escalate this year and could, electronics retailers warn, leave both out in the cold.
At the heart of the matter is a disagreement between Toshiba and Sony over which technology to implement in the next generations of DVDs.
mobilemag.com /content/100/102/C5921   (439 words)

  
 EETimes.com - Sony, SD group deal format war cards   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
TOKYO &0151; A new front opened in the memory card war this week, as both Sony Corp. and the Secure Digital Card Association said they will roll out versions of their formats that embrace I/O and function cards.
Though Yutaka Nakagawa, the Sony corporate executive vice president who heads the Memory Stick division, called the format war "quite regrettable", Sony and the Secure Digital (SD) group held news conferences in Tokyo on the same day (April 13) touting plans to become the portable memory of choice.
Sony defined interface expansion formats that will allow its Memory Stick to serve not only as a memory card but also for various functions, such as a LAN, modem or Bluetooth communication card.
www.eetimes.com /story/OEG20000414S0038   (1432 words)

  
 Format war looks inevitable over optical disk   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
Supporters of both formats agree that compromise would benefit the entire industry, but talks are stalled and HD-DVD backers will soon need to begin final design and development of products if they are to meet their commercialization schedule.
Both formats can hold considerably more data than a DVD and are being promoted as replacements of DVD for high-definition movie content.
But it wasn't until earlier this year that the possibility of a format war was taken more seriously.
computerworld.com /hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,104120,00.html   (1449 words)

  
 EETimes.com - Two proposals seek to avert next-gen DVD format war
LAS VEGAS — The competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps are quietly considering two proposals that could avert a format war and create a single next-generation DVD standard.
A source close to the effort said a final decision may not be announced for as long as two months.
According to sources close to the DVD Forum and the Blu-ray Disc Association, the groups are on the verge of agreeing on a higher-level protocol and interactive layers as well as the physical formats of the incompatible standards.
www.eet.com /news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160902358   (570 words)

  
 Application Development Trends - New front in the doc format war
The Minnesota bill is the second state action designed to address growing concerns that drifting file formats could cause a kind of corporate Alzheimer's that threatens future access to data in the masses of text docs, spreadsheets and presentations generated today in virtually every quarter.
The ODF is one of two rival formats currently making their way through two different standards-approval processes.
The debate over office document formats is nothing short of a battle for our collective memory, says Simon Phipps, chief technology evangelist at Sun Microsystems.
www.adtmag.com /article.aspx?id=18301   (603 words)

  
 HP to support HD DVD - TechSpot News
As the DVD format wars rage on, HP has announced that it is to support HD DVD and that it will no longer support Blu-ray Disc format exclusively.
The BDA has already chosen Java as the BD format's interactivity foundation, and has said that while it will consider including iHD in a future iteration of the specification, it's not going to delay BD's debut to shoehorn it in.
Also a particular format may include features that your company stands to gain from (copy protection, cheap media, etc.) and lobbying for both formats would be foolhardy should the format that better suits your needs be swept under the rug.
www.techspot.com /news/19807-hp-to-support-hd-dvd.html   (723 words)

  
 BetaNews | CES 2006   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
Sony has already announced the first 20 titles it will make available in Blu-ray format, expecting to add four a month and ramping up to as many as 10 per month by the end of 2006.
He said the format battle will be over quick once consumers realize how much more movie titles are available for Blu-ray.
Releasing these formats will stop DVD sales and no one will embrace the new technology in fear that their movies will become obsolete again.
ces.betanews.com /entry/Bluray_What_Format_War/1136581584   (1783 words)

  
 CNN.com - DVD developers set for format war - Nov 13, 2004
Two rival "next generation" DVD formats look set to be launched onto the marketplace next year.
And with the DVD market unlikely to support parallel formats, the loser faces the prospect of squandering millions spent on research, development and marketing costs.
In September it announced that it was adopting Blu-ray as the format for Playstation 3, currently scheduled for release in 2006.
www.cnn.com /2004/TECH/11/11/spark.dvd   (1052 words)

  
 Blu-Ray, HD DVD format war heats up
But in the meantime, the major manufacturers are performing the usual little dances so that they'll be well placed to benefit from whatever Hollywood decides.
Just as mythical as ships sailing between Helios' legs is the notion that the much bigger formats associated with Blu-Ray and HD DVD will hold five films, or anything like that.
As high definition TVs and LCD screens become cheaper and more pervasive, the new graphics formats associated with delivering the type of displays blockbuster movies will require will soak up the extra gigabytes that either Blu-Ray or HD DVD will provide.
www.theinquirer.net /?article=15792   (367 words)

  
 [No title]   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
I won't recap the sad history of the Sony vs. Toshiba, Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD Wars of DVD Succession, because I've covered it elsewhere.
The one hope for avoiding a format war was the ongoing unification talks between the two rival camps.
Unfortunately, the EET reports that the Sony-Toshiba format unification talks have failed, and that a format war looks more likely than ever.
arstechnica.com /news.ars/post/20050517-4917.html   (441 words)

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